Monthly Archives: June 2016

Would I be interested in seeing Georgia sign“the favorite to win Alabama’s starting nickel back spot entering fall camp”? Why, yes, I believe I would.

Smith was playing the nickel as recently as this year’s Alabama spring game, so to say this was sudden isn’t stretching things. Whatever the motivation, to bring in a quality player who’s fully trained in Smart’s defensive system would be a huge get for the Dawgs.

Miller, who was dating Tunsil’s mother during the recruitment and married her in July 2014, says he provided the NCAA with text messages, e-mails and Facebook messages to back up his claims. He showed multiple Facebook and text messages to SI that appear to verify some of the claims in the NCAA Notice of Allegations. He also says he provided his bank and financial records to the NCAA, which helped investigators verify an $800 payment from a booster in August 2014. At one point, Miller says NCAA investigators took his three cell phones to capture all the data.

In one Facebook message, dated Feb. 8, 2013, Miller appears to write to Ole Miss defensive line coach Chris Kiffin: “Plz do all the u you said to help me and desiree and my 2 sons I have been ole miss biggest fan 2 times he committed to ga I was there foor u be there for us when its time ok.”

Kiffin appears to have responded: “You know I will!”

Miller provided SI with the Facebook messages, but they could not be independently verified.

Count me among those who’s still skeptical there’s much more the NCAA will do beyond what Ole Miss has chosen to self-impose. Besides, if things do get worse, there’s always this neat trick:

Ole Miss opens its football season with games against Florida State, Wofford and Alabama. If the Rebels lose two of those three, it’s reasonable to consider that they’d self-impose a postseason ban in the same manner than Syracuse and Louisville’s basketball programs have done in recent years. That would serve as both a preemptive strike toward a more significant NCAA penalty and potentially help the program move forward.

Ole Miss has still not fired any football coaches, which could lead to skepticism by the NCAA of whether the school has sufficiently acknowledged the extent of its missteps. “Schools are probably not doing what they would have issued under the old system,” Buckner said. “You really don’t know. Why penalize yourself when the hearing panel may not impose them?”

Indeed. It’s the NCAA we’re dealing with here, so there’s no reason to rush into anything. Although there would be a certain sense of irony if Ole Miss did decide on a postseason ban for itself the week of the Georgia game.

One other amusing thing – Miller claims to have met with one of the NCAA investigators at a McDonald’s in Oxford, Miss so often that they started meeting in the parking lot instead out of a fear of being seen together. Enter the Oxford Police Department. At least somebody out there is having a good time with this.

Among life’s many rules of thumb, like “when they say it’s not about money, it’s about money”, is the notion that when a politician promotes a bill as a “common sense proposal“, somebody’s pocket is probably getting lined.

Welcome to Congress’ latest stab at fixing prices.

You might have heard about the federal lawsuit that three former minor league players filed against MLB a couple years ago, alleging that minor league pay scales violate minimum wage laws. That lawsuit is still going through the courts, but MLB has found allies in Congress. Rep. Cheri Bustos (D-Ill.) and Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) introduced a piece of legislation called “Save America’s Pastime Act.”

That sounds like something we’d all approve of, right? I mean, who doesn’t want to save baseball? I bet you didn’t realize baseball needed saving! Here’s what the act would do: H.R. 5580 would clarify that minor league baseball players are exempt from federal wage laws. How does that affect MLB? If the lawsuit succeeds in increasing minor league wages, that’s money out of the pockets of MLB owners. MLB teams — not the minor league owners/operators — pay the salaries of minor league players.

On her website, Bustos issued a news release that stated, in part: “Minor League teams are critically important, not just to the players and their parent teams, but to the communities they serve like Peoria and the Quad-Cities. This common sense proposal will close a loophole to ensure the long-term viability of Minor League teams in communities across our nation and I look forward to working with Congressman Guthrie to get it done.”

That’s so great – except it’s not the minor league teams who are stuck with the payrolls. It’s the major league boys, who, last time I checked, aren’t exactly missing any meals.

You think Mark Emmert’s adding Reps. Bustos’ and Guthrie’s phone numbers to his Rolodex today? A “Save College Football Act” has a nice ring to it. Get that PAC moving!

Of course, most of us can think of a dozen things that are more of a mess than satellite camps. But it’s nice he cares.

“There were all kinds of components of it that would not be what we would want to have as our recruiting environment,” Bowlsby said Wednesday. “We are at the point where there’s full acknowledgement that this isn’t about teaching football, it’s about meeting players and meeting families and meeting middlemen. It’s all about the recruiting environment; it’s not about camps anymore. So we need to deal with it on that basis.”

Of course it’s about recruiting, you silly twit. You think anyone would care if it were about teaching football alone?

Chip Towers previews Georgia’s quarterbacks this morning, and while his conclusion is nothing earthshaking (“Look for the Bulldogs to go with Lambert early but play Eason a lot until they feel comfortable with his ability to lead the offense.”), he does write one thing worth noting.

One can be sure that offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Jim Chaney will have a quick trigger if things aren’t going well.

I don’t know enough about Chaney’s career to say whether he likes to channel his inner Spurrier if his quarterbacks aren’t playing to his liking, but for the sake of argument, let’s assume he does. Who’s likely to emerge from the quarterback shuffle?

My bet would be all in on Greyson Lambert, for one reason: he’s the one quarterback at Chaney’s disposal who’s used to playing musical chairs as the starter, both at Virginia and last season at Georgia. If Ramsey blows another chance, it’s likely to be his last in red and black, while Eason will just need more time – and be given more time – to develop.

Would it be the end of the world were that to happen? Well, it would likely mean the initial five-game stretch to start the season would be a little rocky, but remember that Lambert didn’t lose a game after he regained his starting status last year and that the rest of this year’s schedule isn’t that daunting. If Chaney has a healthy Nick Chubb at his disposal for the second half of the season, the offense is manageable, if not exactly prolific.

While it may not be an optimal scenario, given that Chaney made a competent quarterback out of Nathan Peterman last season with a weaker surrounding cast than whoever is named Georgia’s starter will have to play with in 2016, if none of the three can lock down the job early, Lambert should prove serviceable.

Quote Of The Day

“Just because they tweet something emotional during that time, that doesn’t matter,” Smart contended. “It gives the other team motivation. But our team was motivated to play Texas. Texas outplayed us, outcompeted us. They outcoached us. They out-physicaled us. They did a lot of things better than us.” — USA Today, 1/2/19